What does pay for one's whistle mean?

pay for one's whistle

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.75 in modern English

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verb

Dated

"[…] the ship may be on shore before the leader of the band can be convinced how dearly he has "paid for his whistle.""
"He felt mightily experienced at this time, and realized, as he thought, quite clearly, the price he had paid for his whistle. He had had his lesson, so he told himself, and had paid for it, […]"

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